Woman found fatally stabbed

Lincolnton Police secure the Georgetown Road residence of Jerry Alvin Black Jr. and Jennifer Lee Costner after Costner was found dead inside Friday afternoon. Black has been charged with her murder.

JENNA-LEY HARRISON

Staff Writer

A Lincolnton man is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death inside their city home Friday afternoon.

Police responded to 1225 Untold Way in Lincolnton around 1:30 p.m. where 41-year-old Jerry Alvin Black Jr., claimed his girlfriend Jennifer Costner, also of the same residence, had died while he was sleeping on the couch.

After processing the scene, police said it was obvious that Costner had been murdered. According to a press release, the victim sustained “blunt force trauma to her head and multiple cut and stab wounds to her body.”

A press release sent out by Emergency Medical Services said the woman was 42-years-old and was in cardiac arrest when crews arrived on scene.

Costnerâ€™s body has been sent to Wake Baptist Hosptial in Winston-Salem for an autospy, police said.

The incident is the first homicide of the year and only the second murder within city limits in four years.

Black is being held without bond in the Harven A. Crouse Detention Center. Heâ€™s charged with first-degree murder and is scheduled to have a first appearance in Lincoln County on Monday.

His criminal history is lengthy, police said. According to the North Carolina Department of Correction website, Blackâ€™s convictions have occurred in Lincoln and Burke Counties since 1987. He spent more than a year in prison for drug-related charges and has at least three felony convictions on his record for larceny, habitual misdemeanor assault and receiving stolen goods. Misdemeanors include DWI, bomb threat, revoked license, assault on a female, speeding to elude arrest and violating a protective order.

Â Authorities with the State Bureau of Investigation aided police in processing Fridayâ€™s deadly scene.